Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty ImagesWhen you were just a young whippersnapper in school, all you knew about Christopher Columbus was that he sailed some ships across the ocean and discovered America. He was a good guy! He found the country we all live in! Hooray for Christopher Columbus!
And then you got older and learned that something else entirely went down when the Italian explorer sailed the ocean blue in 1492. Like enslavement, discrimination, genocide, colonialism and other terrible things. Plus, there's the fact that he wasn't the first to discover the Americas at all. So basically we have a holiday celebrating a horrible time in humanity's history.
In recent years, the fight against Christopher Columbus and Columbus Day has reached the point where people want to change the name of the holiday altogether. Now, several cities across the U.S. are campaigning to instead call today Indigenous People's Day to honor the Native Americans that were here long before Christopher Columbus.
"Reclaiming the second Monday in October as Indigenous People's Day makes a powerful statement," said Chair Deborah Kafoury of Multnomah County, Ore. "It says, ‘We are no longer going to celebrate a time of genocide, but instead we will honor the land we live on and the people who have been here since the beginning."
So now a lot of people are celebrating the holiday not by taking the day off or attending a parade, but by hating Christopher Columbus and calling out the fact that our country honors a figure that can be called controversial at best and a genocidal maniac at worst:
Do you want to see Columbus Day celebrations banned in your city?
Raven-Symoné is facing some controversy for her recent comments on The View: